High Risk
by Lady Conqueror
Summary: Enterprise investigates a Vulcan ship's disappearance *Ch 6 added*
1. Default Chapter

Title: High Risk 

Rating: PG-13 

Disclaimer: I don't own Enterprise or any of the characters. 

Summary: Enterprise investigates a Vulcan Ship's disappearance. 

Chapter 1 

Sub-Commander T'Pol studied the results of the test she'd been running. Enterprise had spent the last day and a half studying a planetary nebula nearing the end of its life. Compiling the data, T'Pol had noticed some unusual gravitational surges that appeared to erupt from the white dwarf at its centre. While they were now heading away from the nebula, the last surge was a particularly large event and had caused Enterprise to veer slightly off-course. 

"Ensign Mayweather, you will need to correct your course setting by 0.04 degrees starboard." 

"Aye Sub-Commander," came the reply from the helmsman. T'Pol raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Ensign Mayweather's tone sounded..._annoyed_. It appeared to be a common element among some of the junior officers and crewmen whenever she gave corrections or criticism on their work. As she understood her duties aboard, checking on junior officers was well within her scope as the second in command. 

She filed the latest example away for later contemplation and returned her thoughts back to compiling data. She was interrupted a few minutes later by the rather noisy entry to the bridge of Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed. Lieutenant Reed seemed to be highly amused about something. The Commander, rubbing his arm as if it was in pain, looked less so. T'Pol listened to their conversation for a few seconds as they walked to their stations. 

"All right, quit it. It's not that funny." 

"Sorry," Lieutenant Reed apologised. 

"That sounded sincere." Commander Tucker replied. 

"Well, what did you expect?" 

"Some sympathy, my arm's aching." 

"I think I'll save my sympathy for Ensign Lee. You were the one who barrelled the poor guy over." 

"It's not my fault. He came out of nowhere," the Commander defended. 

"Well maybe if you'd been paying attention to where you were going instead of staring at the ground, you might have noticed him sooner." 

"I was thinking about something." 

"Well then..." 

Finding nothing particularly interesting or amusing about the topic T'Pol tuned the conversation out and bent her head back down to return to her work. A question from the Commander distracted her once more. 

"Where's the Cap'n?" Commander Tucker was staring at the Captain's chair with a perplexed look on his face. 

"In his ready room," she replied. 

"Ah." Commander Tucker started to head towards the ready room door, but stopped when T'Pol continued. 

"Now would not be the best time to disturb him." At the Commander's questioning glance she clarified, "He's taking a call from Admiral Forrest." 

"Oh," the Commander bit his lip and frowned at the ready room door as if considering whether to disturb the Captain anyway. Finally he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head slightly, "Guess I'll talk to him later then." 

"That would be best," T'Pol agreed as the Commander made his way back to his station. 

Captain Archer emerged from his ready room a few minutes later and immediately started issuing orders. 

"Hoshi, a set of co-ordinates should have come through along with the communication from Admiral Forrest. Transfer them to Travis' console and then to the situation room computer. Travis, as soon as you get the co-ordinates from Hoshi lay in a course and engage at Warp 4.5. Then both of you can join everyone else in the Situation Room." 

"Aye sir," the two Ensigns responded. 

T'Pol rose from her station and, along with the others, proceeded to the back of the Bridge where the Situation Room was located. She placed herself at a spot directly opposite the Captain, while Commander Tucker took a position on her left and Lieutenant Reed stood to her right. Ensigns Sato and Mayweather, joining them a few moments later, stood off to the Captain's left. T'Pol turned her attention to the map now displayed on the centre console. A red marker indicated the co-ordinates that Ensign Sato had transferred over. The area of space around the marker seemed empty of stellar phenomena. 

"Starfleet got a call from the Vulcan High Command an hour ago. Apparently one of their Science vessels, the T'Roth, was at these co-ordinates." Captain Archer pointed at the red marker. "They were performing some kind of deep space experiment. They were due to check in two days ago. They didn't. The Vulcans have asked us to go and check it out." 

"Why us?" Commander Tucker asked. 

"Enterprise is the closest ship to the T'Roth. The nearest Vulcan ship is three weeks away at high warp. We can be there in four days." 

"Why did they wait so long to ask us to go and take a look?" That question came from Ensign Mayweather. 

"You'd have to ask the Vulcan's that," Captain Archer replied, throwing the question in T'Pol's direction. 

"The Vulcan High Command has several procedures in place to deal with late replies. They would have gone through these procedures fully before sending a vessel to investigate." The answer seemed to satisfy everyone although Captain Archer and Commander Tucker did appear to share a glance. To what end, T'Pol couldn't fathom. 

"What kind of experiment were they running?" Lieutenant Reed asked. 

"They wouldn't say." The Captain sounded frustrated by the lack of detail. 

"Probably somethin' dangerous, considerin' they were in the middle of nowhere," Commander Tucker postulated. 

"Not every science experiment conducted in deep space is a dangerous one, Commander." 

"Then why aren't they answering hails?" 

"I don't know," T'Pol answered. 

"They could have been attacked," Lieutenant Reed added. 

"Or their transceiver array could simply be damaged. Until we have more information, it is useless to speculate on the cause of the T'Roth's silence." 

"Still, best to be cautious Sir," Lieutenant Reed advised. 

"I was planning to be careful Malcolm. Here's what I want. T'Pol, see if you can find a way to improve the sensors. I want to know what we're going into as soon as possible. Trip can give you a hand if you need it. Malcolm, same with the tactical systems. If your right and they were attacked, I want to be ready. Hoshi, I want you scanning the area for comm signals, distress beacons or otherwise, any signal might be important. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded their assent. "Good. Get to work." 

As everyone turned to file out of the situation room, Commander Tucker fell in beside T'Pol. 

"Think you'll be able to get more out of the sensors?" 

"Perhaps, but I'll need to run several simulations to determine which method would be best," T'Pol replied. 

"Okay." Trip nodded. "Well, I'm headin' on back to Engineering. Come on down when you've run your simulations and we'll get started on the upgrading." With that, he headed off towards the turbolift. Captain Archer joined him at the door to the turbolift and they both stepped inside. T'Pol returned to her station and got to work on the simulations. 

****************************************** 

In the turbolift Commander Charles Tucker III, better known as Trip, watched his best friend out of the corner of his eye. Captain Archer seemed to be in a pensive mood. Trip could certainly understand that. Disappearing Vulcan ships weren't exactly an everyday occurrence. 

"You think we'll find it?" Trip asked, more to break the silence than out of expecting an actual answer. 

"I'm not sure what I think we'll find." 

"T'Pol doesn't seem all that worried." 

"T'Pol wouldn't seem worried if someone cut off her arm." 

The Captain had a point, Trip conceded, but so had T'Pol. "Still, she could be right." 

"She could be, but my instincts tell me this one's not going to be that simple." 

The turbolift stopped on G Deck and they both got out. Walking along the corridor they continued their conversation. 

"If Malcolm's right about an attack we may need some speed." 

"Don't tell me you want me to invent a Warp Six engine in five days." 

Archer chuckled at the comment, "No I don't think even you could do that, Trip. Being able to maintain Warp Five for longer might be helpful though." 

Trip knew that Archer was talking about the last and only time they'd hit Warp Five. Escorting a Vulcan ambassador from the planet Mazar, they had been attacked by a criminal faction who wanted the ambassador dead so that she couldn't testify against them in a future trial. While the engine had reached Warp Five, it had overheated fairly quickly and the Captain had had to resort to a bluff to buy time for a Vulcan ship to come to Enterprise's aid. Trip had been thinking through the problem ever since and had some theories that may improve the efficiency. 

"That I might be able to help you with," he told Archer. 

"Glad to hear," Archer patted him on the back in a friendly gesture as they made their way through the door and into Engineering, "but let's hope we won't need it." 

Trip made his way over to the alcove where his computer was situated and started pulling up the specs for the sensor grid. It wouldn't hurt to look over it himself before T'Pol got there. In fact, maybe he could figure out a way to improve the sensors even more. He let a smile cross over his face as he imagined how T'Pol would react if one of his idea's was better than her own. It was a few seconds before he realised the Captain was still beside him. He looked up at Archer questioningly, 

"Somethin' else wrong?" 

"Actually, I was going to ask you that question." 

"You were?" Trip had no idea what the Captain was getting at. 

"Was there some reason you were on the bridge earlier? As I recall, you worked the late shift last night so you could purge the impulse manifolds. I would've expected you to be in bed, or at least off duty." 

"Oh, that." 

"Yes?" 

"It's nothing. I just wanted to talk to you about somethin'." Trip had been working the late shift as the Captain noted, but when he'd got back to his quarter's in the early hours of the morning he'd found that he hadn't been tired. So he had decided to check some of his mail. Some of the news wasn't exactly what he'd expected, _or wanted_, to hear. He'd hoped to talk to the Captain about it, to sort out his feelings. However, with news of the missing ship, it seemed to pale in comparison, and he figured putting it off until later would be best. 

"Well, I'm listening." 

"It's really not that important. It can wait until after the mission." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah," Trip nodded his head. "I'm sure." 

"Okay then. After the mission." Archer emphasized the last to let Trip know that he wouldn't forget about it. "I'll be on the bridge if you need anything." The, _or if you change your mind_, part of the sentence went unspoken but Trip heard it loud and clear. Trip was grateful for the offer, but if they really were heading into a dangerous situation as the Captain clearly believed then his time and thoughts were better spent making sure Enterprise was running at peak efficiency. Pushing all other thoughts out of his head he got to work. 


	2. Chapter 2

Just some authors notes that I forgot to mention in the first chapter before I get started. 

Authors Note 1: First of all a big thankyou to my beta reader stub. 

Authors Note 2: Parts of this story may become a little 'shippy in spots. It shouldn't be too big a deal or distract from the main plot too much, just thought I should warn you in case your really against reading that sort of thing. 

Chapter 2 

Trip was bent over, staring at the control panel for the port fusion injector. The injector had been the first one to blow while travelling at Warp Five. If he could figure out a way to keep the injectors cool at the higher speeds then they should be able to sustain top speed for longer. He was so caught up in what he was doing that when he heard footsteps approach him from behind his right shoulder, he automatically assumed that it was T'Pol, coming about the sensors. Without even looking up he said, 

"I've already got Rostov started on some preliminary work. He's over by the sensor controls. I'll join you there in about five minutes." 

"Well, I don't think the sensors will really help with my problem, but if you're sure." 

Trip was so surprised at hearing Malcolm's clipped British tones instead of T'Pol's cool and clear voice that he straightened up and promptly banged his head on an overhead steel girder. 

"Sonuva..." Trip rubbed his now aching head and turning to face the tactical officer. "Malcolm. What are you doing here?" 

"Sorry." Malcolm was obviously trying to suppress a laugh. "I just wanted to ask you a question." 

"Well you startled the hell outta me. I thought you were T'Pol." Trip looked around the room. Where was T'Pol? She should have been here by now; it had been at least a couple of hours since he'd left her on the bridge. _How long does it take to run a couple of simulations anyway? _he wondered. 

"Not the last time I checked. Sorry to disappoint you." Malcolm glanced down as if checking himself out to see if he had turned into T'Pol. 

Ignoring Malcolm's joke Trip inquired, "What did you want to ask me?" 

"I wanted to know if you'd look over these weapons specs for me. I was thinking about how we overloaded the phase cannons that time." Malcolm's voice switched immediately to a more professional tone and he handed Trip a data pad. Trip remembered back to the event Malcolm was talking about. They had been attacked by a mysterious alien vessel and the only way to get enough power into the newly installed cannons that would do some damage was to overload them. Trip had repolarised the gravity plating to absorb the recoil and then shunted the excess energy to the ship's structural integrity field. "I was wondering if there was some way we could do that again, without blowing out any power relays this time? Or if there was a way we could run even more power through the system?" Malcolm finished. 

Trip bit his lip as he considered the question carefully. The gravity plating hadn't really been rated to handle the amount of energy it had absorbed last time. More would be out of the question. _Unless we could siphon it off to other systems_, the engineering part of his brain added. "That'd be tricky though," he mused out loud. 

"What would be tricky?" Malcolm asked bringing him out of his thoughts. 

"Oh nothing, I was just thinking out loud. Leave it with me. I'll look over it and get back to you." 

"All right then. Try not to injure yourself figuring it out," Malcolm added wryly. 

"You're having an awful lot of fun at my expense today," Trip grouched good-naturedly. 

"I take my fun where I can get it," Malcolm replied breezily. "You seem to be having a particularly clumsy day though." 

"Just unlucky I guess." With his thoughts going back to the letter he'd read this morning, his mind added silently_, in a lot of ways_. Something of his thoughts must have shown up on his face because Malcolm's expression suddenly changed to one of concern. 

"Everything all right?" he asked. 

"Yeah." Trip tried to sound reassuring so Malcolm would buy it. 

"Good," Malcolm seemed relieved. "Well then I'll let you get back to waiting for T'Pol." 

"If she ever decides to turn up. At this rate she'll still be running simulations when we reach the Vulcan ship," Trip grumbled.__

__

"Your assessment is incorrect." T'Pol's clear and precise voice came from behind him. Trip took a deep breath and resisted the urge to scream his frustration. _Was everything going to go against him all day?_ Malcolm was barely containing his laughter now.Trip narrowed his eyes. Malcolm was standing directly in front of him. He must have seen T'Pol come up from behind.Trip took a step forward so he was just centimeters from Malcolm. 

"You set me up with that remark," Trip muttered. He gave an evil grin. "Your gonna pay for that Lieutenant." With that last remark he turned back to T'Pol and ushered her towards the sensor controls, leaving Malcolm standing in the middle of the room. 

__

__ ********************************** 

After visiting Engineering, Malcolm Reed decided that he could spare some time for lunch. Trip's last promise of revenge wasn't exactly going to come quickly, what with all the work needed to prepare Enterprise before they reached the Vulcan ship's co-ordinates. It would probably come after and would no doubt be a doozy. Still, it had been worth whatever was coming to see the look on Trip's face when T'Pol had startled him. Entering the Mess hall, he grabbed some sandwiches off the platter Chef had laid out and surveyed the room for somewhere to sit. The room was mostly empty so he picked out a table near the right wall, where he could go over some technical journals while he ate. It wasn't too long however before he was joined by Travis Mayweather. 

"Mind if I join you?" the young space boomer asked. 

"Please. Go ahead." Malcolm gestured to the seat opposite. 

"How's upgrading the weapons going? Any luck?" 

"So-so. I'm waiting on Commander Tucker to have a flash of engineering brilliance at the moment." 

"Shouldn't be too long then," Travis said with full confidence. Then his face became clouded with worry. 

"Something wrong Ensign?" 

"It's this whole missing Vulcan ship. It's weird," Travis explained. 

"Well, we'll know soon enough what happened." 

"I wouldn't bet on it sir." Travis sounded doubtful. 

"Why not? Do you know something I don't?" Malcolm had been in the armoury for most of the morning. _Perhaps Starfleet had sent another message._

"No, it's just that I don't think we'll find anything. Sounds too much like what happened with the Legacy." 

"The what?" 

"The Legacy. It was a cargo ship that used to travel between the colonies. Until it disappeared. Nobody heard any distress signals from them either." Travis's eyes opened wide and he bobbed his head to emphasise his last sentence. 

"Maybe it was attacked by those...what'd you call them? Norse something or other." 

"Nausicaans?" At Malcolm's nod, Travis shook his own head, "Uh-uh. Another ship passing through the same route later didn't spot any debris. If it had been the Nausicaans you'd have been able to tell. They're not exactly the clean up after themselves type." 

"So what are you suggesting Travis. That something, or someone is running around the galaxy making spaceships disappear?" 

"If I had to guess, I'd say _something_," Travis asserted. 

"I've got it." Malcolm snapped his fingers. "Perhaps it's some sort of giant space monster that can swallow whole ship's at a time." He laughed at his own joke, but Travis didn't seem amused. 

"You can laugh all you want Lieutenant, I'm just telling you what I know." 

"Well, whatever we find, enhanced weapons can only be an advantage." 

"That we can agree on." 

Malcolm spotted Hoshi enter the mess hall. Soon after she came over to join them, plunking her food down on the table. 

"Hoshi," both men greeted her. 

"Hey," Hoshi sighed back. 

"No luck with the comm?" Malcolm guessed. 

"None. There's nothing out there answering hails at all. Certainly, not any Vulcan ships." Frustration tinged her voice. 

"Well, Travis here can cheer you up with his space monster theory." Malcolm attempted to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one with a sense of humor today. Hoshi's eyes went wide and her fork stopped halfway to her mouth. 

"No. Don't tell me. As far as I'm concerned their comm system is broken and _that's all_. Anything else is too creepy." She shuddered slightly at the thought. "Now can we change the conversation please. I'd like to be able to keep my lunch down." 

Malcolm and Travis shared a quick grin. Hoshi didn't really seem to take well to the more unpleasant side of space travel. Still she was improving, in Malcolm's estimation. 

"The movie actually wasn't too bad the other night. For a change." Travis was quickest off the mark with a conversation changer. 

"Yeah, it was pretty good," Hoshi agreed. "What did you think Malcolm?" 

"Didn't see it. It would work out that the one time I'm actually busy was the one time they showed something decent." 

Hoshi giggled and leaned into the table conspiratorially. "I saw T'Pol there." 

"Really?" Malcolm leaned forward as well. "She doesn't seem the movie going type." 

"She was with Trip. Maybe it was a date." 

"Oh." Malcolm wasn't sure what to think about that. Before he could contemplate it further, however, he was distracted by Hoshi waving her hand up and down in front of Travis's face. 

"Hello. Anybody in there?" 

Travis looked up 

"Sorry Hoshi. Just not in the mood to hear about the Sub-commander right now." 

"You still upset about what happened on the bridge." 

_Something happened on the bridge. _This was news to Malcolm. "What happened?" 

"Oh nothing, just that the Sub-commander thinks I can't do my job." 

"It wasn't that bad," Hoshi put in. 

"Your just happy because she's not on your case anymore," Travis pointed out. 

"What did she do?" Malcolm still had no idea what the problem was. 

"Picked on his driving." Hoshi added helpfully. 

"Enterprise had drifted a little off course, but I would have caught it myself if she'd given me a chance. I run a course check every hour; the next one was almost due." 

"I don't see your problem, sounds like she was being helpful. If Enterprise was off course then whoever spotted it first should say something." 

"It was only 0.04 degrees. Besides, what if the Captain had been on the bridge? He might have thought I was incompetent." 

"I doubt he would have thought that. The Captain's hardly a hard taskmaster." He wasn't much of a taskmaster at all in Malcolm's opinion, but that was a different topic. 

"Still, I'm good at what I do. If the Captain has any doubts about my abilities then he could start leaving me off away missions or not letting me man the helm in dangerous situations." 

"I think your making a mountain out of a molehill. You said it yourself; it was only 0.04 degrees. Still if your that concerned about it, perhaps you should bring it up with the Sub-commander." 

"Maybe I will." 

"Good. That's settled then." Malcolm looked down at his empty plate, "I suppose I should be getting back to the armoury. Enjoy the rest of your lunch." 

"Bye," Travis and Hoshi both replied as he got up from the table and walked out of the Mess hall. 


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note : Here's the next couple of chapters. Sorry it took so long. Real life & all that. 

Chapter 3 

The next couple of days passed by quickly for most members of the crew. Everybody was pitching in to help get all the work completed on time. Even Travis, whose main job was to fly the ship, had been called down to Engineering to help with the engine improvements. Right now he and Commander Tucker were camped out in front of the Warp Core, eating some dinner which had been brought down from the mess hall. Travis was enjoying the moment. It reminded him of when he was a kid on the Horizon. On special days, like a member of the family's birthday, his mother and father would pack a lunch and they would have a picnic under the warp core. Of course the Horizon warp core could only do 1.8, so it seemed even cooler to be sitting under a warp 5 engine. Since they were taking a break, Travis figured now would be as good a time as any to ask something he'd been wondering about. 

"How much extra range will we be able to get out of the sensors?" 

Trip swallowed the mouthful of food he was eating then replied, "We should be gettin' readin's about twenty minutes earlier than normal." 

"Twenty." Travis couldn't help but let disappointment show in his voice. 

"Travelin' at Warp four five, that's a fair bit Travis," Trip defended. 

"I guess." Travis conceded. "Still, I'd prefer to know what was going on sooner rather than later." 

"You're not the only one. Take my advice and don't ask the Cap'n what he thinks about it. Seriously." Despite that last warning, Trip's face held a small smile. "Besides, upgradin' the sensors any more would've taken a hell of a lot longer than three days. Just ask T'Pol, she ran all the simulations. And when I say all, I mean..." Trip paused, "Somethin' wrong?" 

"No." 

"C'mon Travis, you look like you just swallowed a lemon." 

"It's just... Sub-commander T'Pol." 

"What about her?" 

Travis quickly related his tale about how T'Pol had corrected his work a few days ago. Trip listened thoughtfully, then asked, "Have you tried talkin' to her?" 

"That's what Malcolm said I should do." 

"Well I agree with him. For once," Trip joked. 

Travis wasn't sure, "What would I say?" 

"Exactly what you just told me. She's not gonna bite your head off." 

"I don't know about that." 

"She's a Vulcan. Everythin's logic and reason to them. The fact that you might get upset about it probably never even crossed her mind. She's never gonna figure it out if you don't tell her." Trip stopped then narrowed his eyes at Travis, "Truthfully, I'm not sure I can figure it out either." 

"What?" Travis was shocked by Trip's last statement. 

"What's gotten you so worked up about this? It's doesn't seem like you, Travis." 

"I already told you." Travis defended. 

"No, you didn't." 

"I don't think she likes me." At this confession, Travis squirmed uncomfortably. He felt like an idiot. Letting himself get so worked up over something so simple. He'd told himself a million times it didn't matter, it wasn't like it stopped them from working well together. _Not everybody has to like you Travis._

__

"Why not?" 

"Lots of reasons," Travis shrugged. "We've barely said two words to each other off duty." 

"And that bothers you." Trip's words were more of a statement than a question, but Travis answered anyway. 

"Well yeah. I've always gotten along with everybody." Before Trip could say anything else, Travis spotted T'Pol headed there way. He motioned for Trip to be quiet. "Shh! Here she comes." 

"Commander. Ensign." 

Trip swung around to face T'Pol, without any signs that he'd just been talking about her two seconds ago. "T'Pol. What can I do for ya?" 

"The work in Engineering has been completed. I'm heading to the bridge to start purging the buffers. I estimate it will take 4.3 hours." She handed the engineer a pad and then clasped her hands behind her back, patiently waiting for his reply. Travis tried not to stare at her, instead he kept focussed on Trip. For his part, Trip was reading the pad, frowning in concentration and seemingly oblivious to everything else in the room. After a few minutes he looked up and handed the pad back to the science officer. 

"Looks good. That'll give me time to finish up here and visit the armoury. How about I meet you up on the bridge at about midnight?" 

"Very well." T'Pol started heading out of engineering. Trip faced Travis once more and jerked his head in T'Pol's direction as if to say, _Go on, follow her_. Travis glanced at T'Pol's retreating figure and gulped. Looking for an excuse not to go he blurted, 

"What about the engines?" 

But Trip wasn't that easily swayed, "I can finish up here, we're nearly done anyway. Go." That last part sounded almost like an order in Travis's mind. He nodded quickly to the engineer and then rose to leave. By this time, T'Pol was already out of engineering and halfway down the corridor towards the turbolift. Travis called out to her as he ran to catch up. 

"Sub-commander, wait!" 

T'Pol halted and turned back to face him. 

"Ensign?" She queried. Travis took a deep breath. _It's now or never, Travis_. His mind held out the ultimatum. 

"Could I talk to you for a minute." 

"Is it important? I'm very busy." 

"It's important to me." 

"Very well." T'Pol squared her shoulders, clasped her hands behind her back and waited patiently for him to begin. Travis glanced up and down the hallway. It was empty at the moment but that could change at any minute. 

"Here?" 

"Where would you suggest Ensign?" 

"I don't know. Somewhere a little more private maybe." Travis suggested. T'Pol nodded in acquiescence. 

"Follow me." With that she moved down the corridor a few paces and opened the door to one of the cargo bays. Travis followed her inside. 

"Is this better, Ensign?" 

"I guess." Travis brought up a hand to scratch the back of his head as he looked around the bay. Containers of all shapes and sizes filled the room. Reading a few of the labels he found they were mostly engineering supplies. He knew the Sub-commander was waiting for him to start, but he wasn't quite sure where. Taking a deep breath, he plunged in. 

"Um, I wanted to ask why you corrected my course on the bridge the other day?" 

"Enterprise had shifted off course. I thought it best to alert you." 

"It had only just gone off course. Why didn't you give me a chance to find it myself?" 

"And how long would you have suggested I waited?" T'Pol's question caught Travis by surprise. He hadn't thought about it like that. You can't wait forever to correct something, it could lead to disaster. _But this was different_, his mind added. 

"Okay you have a point, but in this case it was only a slight change and I check my course every hour. The next review was just about to come up." 

"I know." Travis's face must have shown the confusion he felt at that statement, because T'Pol clarified, "I read your duty reports." 

"So then you know. In my case it wouldn't have hurt to let me find it by myself." 

"So what you suggest is that I should give leeway to certain crewmembers over others?" 

"No, just..." Travis trailed off as he realised he had lost the argument. He had to admit that wouldn't be fair to anybody. He bowed his head in defeat. "I'm sorry, I guess you're right." 

T'Pol nodded in acceptance of his apology. 

"I would suggest that if you wish to avoid this in the future, you should conduct your checks more often. Is that all Ensign?" 

"Yeah," Travis answered, but as T'Pol turned to leave he blurted out, "Do you like me?" T'Pol's head swung back around, one eyebrow raised in question. Travis realised after he said it, that his question could be taken the wrong way, so he added, "as a friend I mean." 

"I'm a Vulcan." T'Pol answered as if that explained everything. 

"So you can't have friends?" Travis thought that was a load of rubbish. He was pretty sure she was friends with the Captain and Trip. Instead of answering that question though, T'Pol went back to the original question, 

"From what I understand, friendships involve a sense of familiarity. Other than that you are a competent helmsman and what I've read from your profile, I know very little about you." 

"Oh." Travis was disappointed and he dropped his gaze to stare at his boots. He supposed it was true; he didn't really know all that much about the Sub-commander either. 

"Perhaps we can change that." Travis's head snapped up as T'Pol's words registered in his brain. "After this mission," she added. 

"I'd like that." Travis grinned. He couldn't stop smiling as he accompanied the Sub-commander all the way back to the bridge. 

************************* 

It actually took Trip another hour to finish the work on the warp engines by himself, but he didn't care. As he left engineering to make his way to the armoury, he didn't see any sign of Travis or T'Pol. He hoped the young helmsman had sorted his problem with T'Pol out. T'Pol could be a - well, he wasn't really sure what she could be - _a pain in the ass on certain occasions that's for sure_, but at other times he almost thought he could understand her. 

As he entered the armoury he spotted Malcolm, hunkered down by one of the torpedo tubes. The armoury officer's hair, normally neat and tidy, was mussed and his sleeves were rolled up. A definite sign that the lieutenant had been working long hours. He must have heard the sound of the doors opening, because he looked up as Trip entered. 

"Commander," he greeted. 

"Malcolm," Trip acknowledged the greeting. "How's everything goin'?" 

"Good. We're just about finished actually. Mostly thanks to your team. They did practically all the work." 

Trip doubted that. Malcolm wasn't really the type to just stand back and let someone else do all the work. Still, if Malcolm wanted to give the credit to Trip's people, he sure wasn't going to knock it back. They deserved it every day in his mind. 

"How's things in Engineering?" Malcolm asked. 

"We're gettin' there. I just came by to check on a few things. Do you mind? It shouldn't take long." 

"Not at all." 

Trip moved the armoury's computer terminal and started bringing up the data he needed. He trusted his team, but he wouldn't be a good chief engineer if he didn't double-check the work himself. The last thing the Captain needs is a fault at a crucial time. 

"So. What did you think of the movie the other night?" Malcolm asked, moving to stand beside him. 

"It was pretty good. I don't remember seein' you there." 

"No, I was busy unfortunately. I, uh... heard that you went with T'Pol?" 

"Yep, but I don't think she enjoyed it much." Trip smiled at the memory. 

"Oh, I didn't know you two were dating." Malcolm made the remark in such an offhand and innocent way that it took a couple of seconds to register in Trip's mind. When it finally did sink in, Trip blurted out loud, "We're not dating!" 

Several crewmembers, from both Malcolm's armoury team and Trip's own engineering team turned to stare at the outburst. Malcolm shot them all 'go back to your business' looks and then cleared his throat before asking in a lowered tone, 

"You're not?" 

"No." Malcolm still looked disbelieving so Trip thought a full explanation might be in order. "The Cap'n and I were talkin' about the movie durin' dinner that night. T'Pol wasn't real impressed and so the Cap'n told her she shouldn't dismiss somethin' she'd never seen for herself. He basically conned her in to goin'. Told her to think of it as a cultural experience. We were all supposed to go together but Porthos got an upset stomach I think the Cap'n had been feedin' him cheese again. Anyway, since he had to take Porthos to Sickbay that left just the two of us." 

"Ah. I see." Malcolm seemed, _relieved_, was the best way Trip could think to put it. 

"Bothered you huh?" That was the second time in as many hours that Trip had asked the question. Both times had been in relation to T'Pol. 

"No!" The Lieutenant sounded particularly unconvincing. 

"Malcolm." At Trip's 'fess up tone, Malcolm let out a sigh. 

"Truthfully I wasn't sure what to make of it." He glanced around to make sure no-one else was in hearing range, "I know I said I think she's pretty, but it's not like I expected anything to happen between us in reality. Of course, I never really thought anything would happen between her and anybody. I guess I was just a little shocked more than anything." 

"Oh." Trip nodded in understanding. Then a thought struck him. With all the work going on, he hadn't gotten around to paying Malcolm back for his little stunt the other day. _A little light teasing wouldn't hurt_, he thought, _it'd only be for a minute or two_. Pity he'd already nixed the date notion, but maybe he could make something of it anyway. Pitching his voice so it sounded as if he was trying too hard to be casual and keeping his attention focused on the control panel, he spoke, 

"So, if someone were to ask her out, you could deal with it?" 

"Why, were you planning on asking?" Trip figured he mustn't have got his tone right after all because Malcolm didn't sound particularly worried. 

"Not _plannin'_ exactly, but..." Trip shrugged and deliberately left the sentence hanging. That got a better reaction, Trip noticed as out of the corner of his eye he could see Malcolm turning to him, shock written all over the armoury officers face. 

"Well, I suppose..." Malcolm stopped, cleared his throat, then started again, "If that's what you really want..." 

_Got him_, Trip's mind crowed. He was just about to turn and tell Malcolm that he'd been joking, when the door to the armoury opened and Captain Archer walked in. Malcolm must have also heard the door open because his demeanour changed immediately. He straightened up, took a deep breath and turned to address the Captain, 

"Captain." 

"Malcolm." Archer acknowledged, before turning to face Trip, "Trip. Engineering told me I'd find you here." 

"And here I am." Trip answered, but his mind really wasn't on the Captain's presence. He was focused on Malcolm, who was currently backing away from the both of them. 

"Well then I'll get out of your way. There's a few things I need to do anyway. If you'll excuse me Sir." He turned and practically fled the scene. 

_Damn it, _Trip berated himself._ Now Malcolm's gonna go away thinkin I'm planning on asking out T'Pol_. He briefly considered calling out to Malcolm as he walked away, but dismissed the idea. It would only embarrass his friend in front of the Captain. Malcolm had some funny idea's about what was _appropriate behaviour_ in front of the Captain and Trip doubted this would fall into that category. 

"Trip." Archer's hand waving in front of his face got Trip's attention away from Malcolm's retreating form. 

"Sorry Sir. I was just thinkin' about somethin'." 

"I can see that. Nothing bad I hope." 

"Nah, it'll work out." _As soon as I get a spare minute, I'll track Malcolm down and sort it out_, Trip decided. He refocused his attention on the Captain, "What can I do for you Cap'n?" 

"Just wanted an update." 

"Well, weapons seem to be fine and we managed to fine-tune the engines some..." 

"Why do I get the feeling there's a _but_ coming?" Archer asked in mock annoyance. Trip gave an apologetic grimace. 

"We haven't had time to run any simulations. I can guarantee that the engines will last at Warp Five longer, _but_ I can't guarantee how much longer." 

Archer nodded in understanding, "It'll have to do. What about the sensors?" 

"I'm meeting T'Pol on the bridge later." Trip checked the chronometer on the console, "Assuming nothin' goes wrong, we should be done about an hour after that." 

"Only an hour?" The Captain seemed to be considering some options. "Well in that case, you can finish it up in the morning." 

"What?" 

"The morning, you know, it generally follows the night. When you've had a nice long _sleep_." Archer's emphasis on the word sleep tipped Trip off into what the Captain was getting at. 

"I've been sleeping." Trip defended. 

"Really," Archer sounded and looked as if he didn't believe a word of it. 

"You can ask Ensign Harper. She had to wake me up so she could use that computer console. Must've gotten a good fifteen minutes in." 

"Is that supposed to be funny, Commander?" 

Trip let out a heavy sigh. "What'd you want me to say Cap'n. The work needed doing." 

"You didn't have any trouble scheduling everyone else's double shifts so they got some rest time off." Archer pulled a duty roster padd from behind his back. "T'Pol has also been managing to get some rest time in. In fact, it was T'Pol who alerted me to the fact that you haven't been resting." 

Trip rolled his eyes at the news that it was T'Pol who ratted him out. _Figures. _

"Don't give me that look Trip. I'm going to need my Chief Engineer on the ball when we get to those co-ordinates." 

"I know," Trip answered dejectedly. 

Archer's tone turned to one of concern, "I know we agreed to wait until after this mission is over, but if what's bothering you is affecting your sleep, maybe we should talk about it now." 

"No. It can wait. _Really_." Trip added the last when it looked like Archer was about to say something else. He dropped his gaze from Archer's face to stare at the top of his boots. "In fact the whole thing is stupid." 

"It can't be that stupid if it's bothering you so much." 

"Your only saying that 'cause you haven't heard it yet." Trip mumbled. 

"Well then, if it _is_ as stupid as you claim, then you shouldn't have any trouble getting some sleep, should you?" Archer asked, although it came out sounding more like an order to Trip's ears. Trip nodded in understanding. Archer clapped him on the back in reassurance that everything would be fine. 

Trip briefly considered making T'Pol wait for him on the bridge all night in payback for ratting him out, but Malcolm's visage invaded the thought. He'd screwed up that, no telling what would happen with T'Pol. 

He turned to Archer. "Will you tell T'Pol we'll finish up in the mornin'?" 

"Will do." Archer agreed. They both exited the Armoury together, Trip throwing one last glance around to try and spot Malcolm. No sign of him anywhere. _Must've left while I was talkin' to the Cap'n._

They rode the turbolift together in silence, but just as Trip was getting off at his deck, Archer called out, "I'd better hear that you got a good night's sleep in the morning, Commander." 

As the turbolift doors closed on Archer's face, Trip blew out a sigh, which somehow turned into a yawn. He rolled his eyes in annoyance at himself for that. He was just thankful he hadn't done it while the Captain was still there. "Probably woulda marched me right to my door and tucked me in," he muttered under his breath as he walked to his quarters. Opening his door, he surveyed his room as he entered. The place was a mess. He'd barely been in here the last few days, only stopping by for a shower or change of uniform. His eyes drifted over to his desk where the letter from a few days ago still showed up on his computer screen. He must've forgotten to turn it off. He marched over to it and shut it off angrily, "I don't care," he tried yelling at the now blank screen, but it turned into another yawn halfway through. _Maybe I'm just too tired to care._ Now that the Captain had brought it up, he really did feel exhausted. Flopping down on his bed he bent down to remove his boots. Beyond that, he really couldn't care. Swinging his legs up onto the bed he thumped the pillow once to make a dent and laid his head down and fell into a fitful sleep. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Ensign Hoshi Sato took a deep breath and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. Enterprise was due to arrive at the T'Roth's coordinates this afternoon, but the waiting was starting to get to her. _It's just a problem with their comm system._ She'd been repeating that to herself all morning, like a mantra, but it wasn't helping much. She needed a distraction. Unfortunately, much like the comm system, the bridge was dead quiet. Everybody was concentrating fully on their own stations. _It's just a problem with their comm system._

"Everything all right, Hoshi?" Great_, _now the Captain had noticed her uneasiness. _Get a grip Hoshi,_ she silently berated herself. Forcing a smile onto her face she replied, "Fine, Sir." 

Thankfully, he seemed to buy it, or at least she thought so briefly until he leaned down towards her and said in his most reassuring tone, "Their comm system's probably just down." 

Hoshi kept the smile plastered on her face and nodded agreement. On the inside however, she knew the Captain didn't believe that for a minute, and if she was being truly honest with herself, neither did she. Still, in some situations, Hoshi found that honesty could be overrated. _It's just a problem with their comm system_. 

She breathed a sigh of relief as the Captain's attention was drawn away by the sound of the turbolift doors opening. She turned herself to see Commander Tucker entering, a tool kit in his hands. She let a small genuine smile escape her lips. Trip was no doubt here to complete the sensor upgrades. That meant he was going to be working with T'Pol. Hoshi always enjoyed listening to the Commander and Sub-commander trade barbs. They seemed to bring out the best, or worst, depending on how you viewed it, in each other. Listening to them would be just the distraction she needed. 

"Did you sleep well, Commander?" T'Pol asked. 

"Fine." 

Hoshi frowned. There was an odd note in the Commander's tone. It was very subtle; Hoshi doubted anyone else would have picked up on it, but with her ears she tended to notice nuances like that. It was one of the reasons she was so good at linguistics. 

"You don't sound so sure about that." Once again, Captain Archer proved her wrong. She supposed it was only natural; the two had been friends for a long time. If anyone besides herself would notice, the Captain was the most likely choice. 

"Tossed and turned a bit," Trip admitted. "Guess I was a little anxious..." Instead of finishing the sentence, Trip gestured to the view screen. _Oh, the Vulcans_. Hoshi had temporarily forgotten them after all, just like she'd hoped, only now she remembered again. _Damn_. The Captain looked at Trip as if he didn't entirely believe him, but instead of commenting further he just returned to his chair and resumed staring at the view screen. Hoshi glanced at the Commander. Trip was staring at the Captain with a look on his face as if he'd just dodged a bullet. _Wonder what that's about_. Hoshi frowned in concentration as she tried to remember if she'd heard any gossip about trouble between the Captain and Trip. Nothing came to mind, but then again, nobody had had time for gossip the last couple of days. 

"Commander Tucker." T'Pol's voice broke the silence that had descended on the bridge. 

"Oh right. The sensors. Did you clear the buffers?" 

"Yes." 

"Good. I'll need to get to under your console." Trip made little shoo-shoo gestures with his hands to indicate T'Pol needed to move. She raised an eyebrow at him as she moved back out of the way. Wedging himself in between the console and T'Pol's chair, Trip pulled off a section of plating. 

"Tucker to Engineering." 

"Engineering here, Sir." Lieutenant Hess's voice filtered back through the comm link. 

"You can start rerouting the power couplings now." 

"Aye Sir." 

"T'Pol, could you pass me the phase coupler out of the tool kit?" Without turning to look, Trip stuck out his hand behind himself. T'Pol coolly bent down to retrieve the requested item and handed it to him wordlessly. _So much for snappy banter_, Hoshi thought dejectedly. _Looks like it's going to be strictly professional today. _

__

After a few minutes work, Trip questioned, "How's that look?" 

T'Pol moved closer so she could see the console controls. "The console doesn't appear to be working," she replied. 

"What?" Trip jumped up from underneath the console, only missing banging his head by centimetres. "That's not supposed to happen." He pushed a few buttons on the console. 

"Nevertheless, it has." 

"I can see that," Trip responded tightly. "Tucker to Engineering. Stop what your doing, we've got a problem up here." 

"Aye sir," came the reply, too quickly for Hoshi to determine the speaker. She always loved trying to pick out voices over the comm system. It was a good test for her skills she thought. 

"Problems?" Captain Archer asked. He and everyone else on the bridge had all stopped what they were doing to watch the proceedings at the science station. Since everyone else seemed to be focussed there, Hoshi stopped pretending that she was busy as well. The computer had been doing most of the work anyway and she'd rather watch what was going on properly than out of the corner of her eye. 

"Probably just a minor glitch in the console. Shouldn't take too long to track it down." 

"How do you intend to find the...glitch...with the power down?" T'Pol asked. 

"Well, I thought that would be obvious to you, T'Pol. Logical deduction." Trip finished the sentence with a smirk as if he'd just put one over on the Sub-commander. T'Pol didn't seem fazed at all, however. 

"The Captain wishes this job done quickly. I would suggest that now is not the time for you to be experimenting with new techniques." 

Hoshi couldn't help letting out a giggle at T'Pol's statement. She quickly put her hand over her mouth to cover the laugh but it was too late. Luckily, she wasn't the only one laughing. Travis also let out a brief chuckle and Hoshi didn't need to look over at the Tactical station to know that Malcolm would be smirking. Trip was now giving both herself and Travis a death glare. He crossed his arms over his chest and asked, 

"Just whose side are you on, _Ensigns_?" Emphasizing their rank was a low blow in Hoshi's opinion. 

But before she could respond T'Pol turned to him and said, "If you'll recall Commander, I outrank you." 

Hoshi couldn't see the look on T'Pol's face because of the way she was facing but the look on Trip's said it all. 

"Captain," he appealed, sounding for all the world like a five year old. Hoshi half expected to hear 'T'Pol's picking on me,' to come out next. The Captain however was holding back his own laughter. 

"Don't look at me Trip. She's got you there." 

Trip threw his hands up in the air and gave an over dramatic sigh. "Fine. This is the amount of respect I get for keepin' this ship runnin' day in, day out. Remind me why I signed on again." Before anyone had time to respond, Trip pointed at T'Pol. "Don't you dare say anything. And that goes for the rest of you too. Now if you don't mind, I have work to do." With one last glare at everybody on the bridge, Trip moved back under the console. 

Hoshi shared a grin with Travis as they both turned back to their stations. Looking at the results of the latest sweep for comm traffic quickly wiped the grin off her face though. Nothing. Just dead, empty space. _Dead_. She wished her mind had come up with a different word than that as she tried to suppress the sense of dread that was welling up inside again. She took a deep breath. _It's just a problem with their comm system._

************************************** 

Captain Archer tried not to fidget in his chair. He also suppressed the urge to ask for the umpteenth time whether or not T'Pol was picking up anything on the sensors yet. _She'll let you know when she gets something_, he tried to tell himself. Despite a brief problem, the sensors had been upgraded this morning and ever since then Archer had been on tenterhooks, waiting for the moment they would come into sensor range. The entire senior staff, with the exception of T'Pol who appeared the same as always, all seemed to be in a similar state. It was only a matter of minutes now, but to Archer, these seemed like the longest minutes in history. He half turned in his chair, but T'Pol anticipated the question before it sprang from his lips, 

"Nothing yet, Captain." 

Archer turned back. He knew he was making both himself and his crew jumpy with his behaviour but he couldn't help himself. He stared at the view screen as if that would tell him what he wanted to know. All it showed however was the stars racing by. He drummed his fingers on the chair arm. There was nothing he hated more than waiting. 

"We're coming into sensor range now, Captain," T'Pol stated. 

Archer resisted the urge to race over to her console and look over her shoulder. Instead he moved to Travis at the helm. 

"Slow down to Warp 2 Ensign. We don't want to barge in there before we find out what's going on." 

"Aye sir." 

"Well?" he asked T'Pol. She didn't answer him as she studied the data coming through to her. After what seemed an eternity to Archer she looked up. 

"There appears to be nothing in the vicinity of the coordinates." 

"What do you mean, nothing?" 

"Exactly what I said Captain." Down at the helm station, Travis turned in his seat and gave Malcolm an 'I told you so' look. Archer briefly wondered what that was about and he gave his own questioning glance to Trip, seated at his engineering station. The engineer just shrugged his shoulders in reply. Archer supposed it didn't really matter, after all he had more immediate questions that needed answering. Malcolm, however, beat him to it. 

"What about debris?" 

"The scans detect no debris," T'Pol replied. 

"But we _are_ at maximum range. It's possible that there could be debris, just small enough not to be detected yet." Malcolm persisted with his line of questioning. 

"Possible, but unlikely. The T'Roth was not a small vessel. If it were destroyed, it's likely that some of the debris would be large enough to detect even at this range." 

"Wouldn't that depend on what destroyed it?" 

"It would be almost impossible for a hostile vessel or vessels to have enough firepower to leave the T'Roth in such a state as you describe." T'Pol seemed to have an answer for every question, but so did Malcolm. 

"Almost, but not entirely impossible? Besides, what about this experiment they were conducting? For all we know, that could have destroyed them without leaving much debris." 

"Whatever the case," Archer interrupted to break up the argument brewing between his science and armoury officers. "For now, we know that no ships are in the vicinity. Travis, why don't you pick up speed again." 

"Aye sir. Increasing to Warp 4.5." 

"Why don't you make it 4.8. We may as well hurry this up a little more." 

"Four point eight," Travis echoed. The ship shuddered a little as it hit the new speed. Archer settled in to wait for Enterprise's arrival at the coordinates. 

Four hours later, Enterprise dropped out of Warp. They had discovered about an hour earlier that T'Pol's initial scans had been correct. Nothing at all, not even debris, was in the area of space surrounding the Vulcan's ship's location. _Especially not a Vulcan ship_. Archer found himself squinting at the view screen as if it would help him spot what wasn't there. His report to Starfleet wasn't looking good. _Arrived at coordinates. Nothing to find. _He could just imagine the Admirals and Vulcans back home reading that. No, he was going to find something even if it was just a speck of space dust. His father had always told him that if he was determined enough he could achieve anything. He kept that firmly in his mind now as he waited for further scans to be completed. From her science station, T'Pol looked up from her scanner. 

"Captain. I am detecting two Warp trails headed away from the area at bearing 247 mark 080. One is clearly the T'Roth's." Archer wondered how she could keep so calm with a shipload of her people missing. If it had been a human vessel, Archer doubted he would be so serene. Hell, he wasn't serene now. 

"And the other?" he queried. 

"Unknown. However, the trails are badly decayed. They have been gone for at least a few days." 

"So someone's subdued the T'Roth then, and taken it captive." Lieutenant Reed voiced what was probably going through every bridge officer's head, including Archer's. 

"It seems that way," Archer agreed before tilting his head in T'Pol's direction, "unless you can think of a logical reason why the Vulcans would leave with an alien vessel and not report it to the High Command?" 

"No. However that doesn't mean there isn't one." T'Pol replied. Archer tried not to roll his eyes at his science officer. 

"Put it up onscreen," Archer ordered. Two yellow lines marking the warp trails led off into the blackness of space popped up on the view screen. Maybe there would be something to put in his report after all. 

"Time to follow the Yellow Brick Road," Trip commented from his station. Archer let a small smile escape at the imagery that his friend had brought up. The two yellow lines from the ship's warp trails did seem to define a pathway. T'Pol, however, apparently hadn't gotten the reference. 

She looked at Trip in askance. "Yellow Brick Road?" 

"Really not important right now T'Pol." Archer answered before Trip could respond. "Travis, lay in a course to follow and take us out of here." Sharing a brief look of acknowledgement with his Chief Engineer he added, "It's time to go see the Wizard." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five 

It was the early hours of the morning when T'Pol put in the call for all senior officers to report to the bridge. Enterprise had been following the two warp trails for ten hours. After the first few hours with nothing of note happening, the Captain had decided that the crew should stick to their normal shifts until new information came up. The only exception to this being that one of the senior officers should remain on the bridge to oversee 'the chase', as he called it. T'Pol had volunteered for the first watch since her Vulcan physiology allowed her to go several days without sleep with no decrease in efficiency. The Captain had reluctantly agreed, although T'Pol noted that he stayed on the bridge a few hours after his own shift ended anyway. 

Bearing this in mind, she wasn't surprised that the Captain was the first of the senior bridge crew to arrive. From his appearance she guessed he hadn't been sleeping when she called, despite the early hour. Lieutenant Reed followed right on his heels, looking as alert and ready as if he was expected on duty at this time. A few moments later Ensigns Sato and Mayweather exited the turbolift together. Judging from the Ensign's slow movements and bleary eyes they had both been woken by her call. After a few more minutes however, Commander Tucker had still not arrived. Captain Archer started drumming his fingers on the table and the other officers began sharing concerned glances. When it became clear that the Commander wasn't coming, the Captain stalked over to the comm. panel. 

"Archer to Commander Tucker." 

T'Pol decided to listen closely to the conversation. For the past few days, she had noted the Commander had been acting strangely, as if something were troubling him. He had been easily distracted and did not appear to be sleeping. Knowing of his close friendship with Captain Archer she had reported her concerns on the matter to him. She had assumed the matter had been dealt with, but perhaps she was wrong. 

A few seconds went by with no reply, and the Captain was just about to repeat his call when the comm. line crackled to life. 

"Tucker here. Go ahead." To T'Pol's ears the Commander's voice sounded from a distance, as if he was a few meters away from the comm. panel. The Captain didn't seem to pick up on this oddity, or if he did, he showed no sign. Annoyance tinged his words. 

"In case you hadn't heard, you were supposed to have reported to the bridge. We're waiting." 

"Sorry Cap'n. I would've been there by now, it's just that-" A sudden cry of pain cut off the Commander's words. "OUCH!! What the hell did you do that for?" 

"I thought it might help." Doctor Phlox's voice sounded cheerfully over the intercom. "Did it?" 

_Commander Tucker is in Sickbay._ T'Pol blinked. It was the only outward sign that she had been surprised by this new revelation. 

"No, it didn't!" 

"Trip?" Captain Archer's voice changed at once from harsh to deeply concerned. He glanced back from the comm. panel and his eyes locked momentarily with her own. T'Pol tried to convey a sense of calmness through her own gaze but she was unsure how successful she was. Her own concern may have gotten in the way. 

"Everything's all right Captain," Doctor Phlox assured. 

"Easy for you to say," the commander's voice mumbled in the background. He didn't sound like he was in pain anymore though. 

"What's going on, Doctor?" Captain Archer's question was one that T'Pol very much wanted an answer to as well. 

"Commander Tucker's just a little indisposed at the moment." The doctor's voice sounded cheerfully optimistic. T'Pol chose to take this as a sign that the Commander was not seriously injured. She found it surprisingly easy to ignore the fact the doctor generally sounded optimistic no matter what was happening. 

"How is he indisposed, exactly?" the captain asked in a tone suggesting a mixture of confusion and frustration. 

"Ahh!! Now that's an interesting story...." 

"Which can be told _later_," Trip interrupted the doctor angrily. "I'll be up as soon as I can, Cap'n. Tucker out." 

As the comm. closed, Archer turned back towards the table. "Well, I guess that answers that then." T'Pol had gotten quite used to picking up sarcasm in her Captain's tone and on this occasion, his voice just dripped with it. "You may as well start your report T'Pol. Trip can catch up when he gets here." 

"Of course. We followed the two warp trails to this small planetary system." T'Pol punched some buttons on the console to bring up a diagram of the system. "The T'Roth is currently orbiting the fourth planet. I took the liberty of hiding Enterprise behind the seventh planet. It's a class eight gas giant and should obscure us from being detected." 

"If I'm reading this right, it looks like more than the T'Roth is orbiting that planet," Lieutenant Reed stated. He was staring intently at the screen. 

"You're correct. There are approximately a dozen ships in orbit." 

"A dozen!" Captain Archer exclaimed in surprise. 

"Perhaps more," T'Pol answered. "There are several factors making it hard to provide a more accurate reading." 

"Can we tell whether any of these ships is the one that brought the T'Roth here?" 

"No. They all appear to be powered down." 

"What about the planet?" 

T'Pol tapped some more buttons and a schematic of the planet came into view. 

"The planet is Menshara class-" Before T'Pol could finish her report, the schematics were all replaced by giant bursts of static. 

"What happened?" Surprise was evident in everyone's face but it was Lieutenant Reed that was first to ask the question. 

"I was about to explain," T'Pol stated. Archer gestured for her to continue. "The largest continent on the planet appears to have a area of land containing an energy barrier." 

"A base?" Archer posited. 

T'Pol inclined her head to show her agreement with that assessment. 

"Most likely. However, at regular intervals it emits a high burst of radiant energy which obscures our sensors." 

"How regular?" Archer asked. 

"Every twenty one point three minutes." 

"How long does this burst last?" 

"Six minutes." 

Captain Archer appeared to be considering this new information, but his attention was diverted when the turbolift doors opened and Commander Tucker rushed onto the bridge. He stopped short when he noticed five pairs of eyes all trained on him. After a few seconds his fair skin coloured in embarrassment under the intense gazes of his fellow crewmen and he gave a sheepish grin as he moved into the situation room and took a spot next to Lieutenant Reed. 

"Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?" He avoided looking at anyone and began studying the readouts intently. His attempts to pretend everything was normal was hindered by the fact the screens still showed only static. 

T'Pol surreptitiously gave the Commander the once over. He appeared uninjured at first glance, although his left uniform sleeve was missing; torn at the shoulder. Captain Archer, who had been giving Trip the once over much more blatantly than herself, cleared his throat and began speaking. 

"So, to recap, we have the T'Roth and numerous other ships orbiting a planet. We have no idea who the other ships belong to or which one was responsible for the disappearance of the T'Roth. The planet itself has some sort of alien base surrounded by an energy shield. The shield emits a six minute energy burst every 20 minutes. Correct?" 

"Correct," T'Pol confirmed, though the summary was no doubt more for Commander Tucker's benefit than to really refresh anyone's memory. The information she had been able to gather had been most lacking in substantive detail. 

"Anything else to add?" 

"No." 

"So the question becomes - what do we do now?" Archer glanced at everyone at the table, waiting to hear their opinions. 

"Will these energy bursts cover our movements against..." Lieutenant Reed paused as if lost for words. He finally gestured at the view screen and finished lamely, "...whoever it is that's responsible?" 

"I believe so. When I gave the order for Enterprise to enter the system I did so under the cover of one of these bursts. There have been no indications that our presence has been detected." 

"You knew about these energy bursts before we entered the system?" the captain interrupted. 

"Yes. They were detectable from a sizeable distance away." 

"May I ask why you didn't inform me of this when you first noticed it? After all, it might have been important." _There was the sarcasm again_, T'Pol noted. 

"When I first detected it, I wasn't sure if it was a natural phenomenon or if it was being created artificially. There was the possibility that the warp trails would have veered off from the system. I thought it best to gather more information before alerting you." 

Archer nodded, "I understand. But next time, let me know even if you're unsure." 

T'Pol inclined her head in acknowledgment. The Captain's rebuke had been mild but well deserved, in her opinion. Her explanation had been truthful but there was another reason as to why she had not contacted the Captain earlier. A more troubling reason. She had been... _appreciating_ the quietness of the night shift. Ever since the T'Roth had been reported missing, the crew of the Enterprise had been growing increasingly agitated with each passing day. Combined with the fact that she had had to cut her meditation sessions down to accommodate the crisis, the heightened emotions of the crew had begun to wear on her. She frowned slightly in annoyance. It was a poor excuse for delaying a report. Then it hit her that frowning and annoyance were both forms of emotion. She quickly wiped the frown from her face and replaced it with her usual expression, however she was less successful at suppressing the annoyance. A small knot remained no matter how she tried to dislodge it. She glanced up to see if anyone had noticed her lapse, but it appeared no one had. 

"These energy readings are off the scale. I'd be surprised if they could see any more than us during one of these things," Commander Tucker stated, bringing everyone's attention back to the problem at hand. The Commander looked up briefly from the readouts meeting her gaze, and a small corner of his mouth upturned into a slight grin. Perhaps someone had noticed her lapse after all. She watched the Commander for any more signs that would indicate exactly how much he'd seen, but he had returned his full attention back to the readouts. 

"But how do we _know_ these aliens sensors aren't a hundred times more advanced than ours?" Ensign Sato asked. 

"We don't," T'Pol acknowledged, "but from the information we do have it's a reasonable hypothesis." 

"Unless they're biding their time to see what we do next." Ensign Sato's statement seemed to unnerve the other officers. Standing beside her, Ensign Mayweather started shifting about uncomfortably and Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed both lifted their heads to stare out of the front view screen. T'Pol wasn't sure what they were expecting to see; the view screen was filled with the image of the gas giant they were currently in stationary orbit around. 

Captain Archer cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention, 

"All right. For now we'll work on the assumption that they can't see us during those surges." He turned his attention to Lieutenant Reed, "I assume since you asked the question, you have an idea?" 

The Lieutenant, his full attention now back on the Captain, nodded. "I thought we could take a shuttlepod to the surface of the planet. Check this base out. There must be a way in from the ground." 

"The shuttlepod would never make it to planet in six minutes. Not from here," Ensign Mayweather put in. 

"Enterprise could though." Reed continued on undaunted, "We could warp over there, drop a shuttlepod and warp back to our present location, before they even knew we'd been there." 

"The timing would be pretty tight." Mayweather sounded uncertain. 

"Is it possible or not?" Captain Archer cut to the chase. 

"I suppose but..." 

"No." T'Pol cut off Ensign Mayweather's answer. The three men's heads snapped around to stare at her in shock. It was as if they'd forgotten she was there. Annoyance once again flared up inside her. 

"Why not?" Lieutenant Reed sounded almost affronted by her interruption, but T'Pol saw no point in them making any further plans down this route. 

"The base is located in the middle of a desert. The nearest cover is a set of mountain ranges, many kilometres away. The away team would likely be spotted before it was even halfway across." 

"Oh." The defeated sigh of Lieutenant Reed coincided with the return of the sensors. The static gave way to show readings of the planet that T'Pol had called up before they went off-line. The pictures clearly showed T'Pol's words to be true. Archer punched the buttons and the picture returned to the ships orbiting the small world. 

"Since we can't get to the base without being detected, let's focus on the T'Roth. There might be some clues as to what's going on onboard. Besides, being a Vulcan science vessel, it's sensors are likely to be better than ours. We may be able to get better readings from them if nothing else." 

"This looks like a docking port on the far side, facing away from the planet. They probably won't notice a few extra metres of metal if it showed up there." Travis enthused, quickly jumping on the new plan. To T'Pol, this plan seemed just as risky as the previous one but her objections in this were less concrete. Still, she had to try. 

"While I believe that the energy surges most likely block the sensors of these aliens as well, it is by no means a certainty. Ensign Sato's proposition could very well be the correct one. I recommend we do not put Enterprise in any more danger than is necessary. The more chances we give them to detect us, the greater the risk of detection." 

"Well what _do_ you suggest T'Pol?" Captain Archer asked, frustration at her attempts to block their plans evident in his voice. 

T'Pol was about to put forth her recommendation that they contact the Vulcan High Command and send for some more ships to come and investigate the matter, when Commander Tucker put in. 

"We may not need to use Enterprise to get to the T'Roth. All we need is the shuttlepod." The knot of annoyance in T'Pol's mind grew slightly at the Commander's words, but before she could respond, Lieutenant Reed saved her the trouble. 

"We've been through this. A shuttlepod won't make it to the T'Roth in six minutes." 

"I know that," the Commander stated, rolling his eyes, "but what if we moon-hopped?" 

"Trip?" Archer questioned. Commander Tucker brought up a schematic of the system, showing all the planets and moons and their orbiting paths. 

"Look at the way these moons and planets are arranged. If we plotted a course for the shuttlepod over stages, hiding behind each of these moons," his fingers traced a path along several of the moons, "until the next surge comes along. We could make it all the way to T'Roth. It won't be a fast trip, but we'll get there and we won't be risking Enterprise." 

T'Pol had to admit his plan was feasible. The Captain seemed to come to the same conclusion because he pinned the Commander with a level gaze. 

"I assume you're fit for an away mission?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Good. Malcolm, T'Pol, you'll be joining us." 

"Aye, Sir." Lieutenant Reed answered and T'Pol echoed him. 

"There's a few more preparations I need to make before we get started so we'll set off the surge after the next. Make sure the shuttlepod's ready to go by then." 

"Aye sir." Trip responded. 

"If that's everything. Dismissed." The other officers began filing out of the situation room. Commander Tucker headed for the turbolift and Lieutenant Reed appeared to do same but at the last minute stopped short. He stared at the Commanders back for a few seconds then turned and headed towards his own station. T'Pol was unsure why, when he reached his station, he glanced her way and then back to the turbolift where the Commander had just been whisked away. _Most strange._ Still, she had a more important task at hand than worrying about the relations between the Commander and Lieutenant. 

"Captain, may I speak with you?" T'Pol called out to Archer's retreating form. 

"My ready room," Archer stated, not stopping on his path but slowing down enough to let her catch up. 

"Let me guess," he said as the doors to the ready room closed behind them, "you don't approve." His words were tinged with humour as if he found her opinions amusing. The knot of annoyance once again grew in size. 

"It's a foolish risk." 

"What would you have us do?" 

"Contact the High Command. They can send vessels better equipped at handling these situations." 

"The nearest Vulcan ship would be, what? Four weeks away. At least. What are we supposed to do until then? Sit on our hands?" 

"Of course not." The Captain perked up at T'Pol's reassurance that Enterprise wouldn't be left standing still, but his face returned to it's expression as she continued on. "Enterprise will return to it's original course." 

"C'mon T'Pol. You've been with us long enough by now to know that's not going to sit well with anybody. _Especially_ me." T'Pol had to admit that the answer from the Captain was pretty much what she had expected. Still, it was her duty to report all options to the Captain and hers was the most logical choice. Not surprisingly, it was an option that the more emotional humans didn't favour. 

"Aren't you the slightest bit curious about what's going on over there?" Archer asked. 

"It is intriguing," T'Pol admitted, "but I don't believe it's wise to risk 83 lives to satisfy my curiosity." 

"And that's what you think I'm doing? Risking 83 lives to satisfy a curiosity." 

"Aren't you?" 

"No. I'm risking four." Archer gave a brief snort of amusement but it turned into a deep sigh. "Look, the Vulcan High Command asked us to find out what's going on, and that's what I plan to do. I'm not going to quit because things get a little risky. It's not in my nature. It's not in human nature. Understand?" 

"Perfectly. However it is my duty to inform you of all the options." 

"I can accept that. You're right in one respect, though. Starfleet and the High Command do need to be informed. In fact, I plan to do just that. While we're exploring the T'Roth, I thought I'd send Enterprise out of the system to send a message." He hit the intercom button, "Travis, report to my ready room." 

"Aye, sir," the young ensign's voice answered. A few moments later the door chime sounded. 

"Come in," Archer called. The door slid open and Ensign Mayweather entered. 

"You asked to see me sir?" 

"I did." 

"If you'll excuse me Captain. Ensign. I need to prepare for the away mission." T'Pol excused herself from the room. 

"Of course," Archer allowed, then turned his attention on the young ensign, "Travis, I know you were probably expecting to fly the shuttlepod but there's something else I'm going to need you do..." 

When the door sealed shut behind her, blocking off the Captain's words, she quickly dismissed them from her head. By her calculations she had just under 40 minutes remaining until the away mission. Enough time to squeeze in a small meditation session. It wouldn't be enough time to completely banish all her emotions but it may be enough to calm them into a more manageable state. Her lapses earlier weighed on her mind especially, but most disconcerting of all was the stab of fear she'd felt upon finding out that Commander Tucker was in Sickbay. _No!_ her mind corrected sharply, _it wasn't fear. Vulcan's don't feel fear. It was merely worry. Concern for a fellow crewman. That's all._ T'Pol quickened her steps. Meditation was definitely in order. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Once again I apologise for the long delay in updating. Blame real life and the uncooperative Muse.****

****

Chapter 6 

Shuttlepod One slowly maneuvered out from behind the last moon and started heading in the direction of the Vulcan vessel, the graceful curves of the ringed warp drive standing out against the mostly squat forms of the ships beside it. At the helm, Captain Archer squirmed a little in his EV suit. Even without the helmet the damn things were uncomfortable beyond belief, but there was no telling what they'd find on the T'Roth and he wasn't about to take those sort of chances. At the least, with the power down, it would be freezing and the air would be stale. At the worst, poison gases. He took a brief glance at the other occupants of the pod. Malcolm and Trip were both staring out the windows in amazement. Archer couldn't really blame them; he never expected to find a hidden cache of stolen ships. _Who the hell could've done this_? he wondered. T'Pol on the other hand was studying her console instead of looking out the window. 

"Can you get anything from the sensors?" Archer asked her. He'd asked every time they'd left the safety of the moons, hoping against hope that somehow the shuttlepod's sensors would be able to penetrate the static as they got closer. He knew it was a fruitless question each time but it made him nervous that they couldn't see if anything had detected them. 

"No," came her succinct reply. 

"Guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way then," he pointed out at the ships, "keep your eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary." 

After a few minutes of intensely studying the area in view, Malcolm called out, "Is that a cargo freighter?" 

"Where?" Archer asked, turning his attention to the area Malcolm seemed to be looking at. The thought of a human vessel being caught up in whatever was going on here didn't sit to well with him. 

"To the left there. Next to that pinkish coloured ship." Malcolm explained. Archer now saw the ship his armoury officer was referring too. He didn't have much experience with the cargo vessels himself. All he had to go on was what he remembered of the time Enterprise had rendezvoused with the Fortunate. It did seem to be a similar design shape at the front. However, the back end seemed more rounded and compact. There also seemed to be no connections for cargo containers. After having been set adrift from The Fortunate in one of those containers, Archer had a clear memory of them. 

"You mean a human cargo freighter?" Trip asked, craning his neck to get a better look at the area Malcolm had indicated. 

"No, I meant a bloody Andorian freighter," Malcolm answered back sarcastically. "Of course I meant a human freighter." 

"All right. Calm down. No need to get your panties in a bunch," Trip replied. He stared intently out the window for a few seconds before asking, "Why would anyone paint a ship pink?" 

Archer knew Trip well enough to know that that last question had been intended to rile up the other man and from the look on Malcolm's face it was working. And this hadn't been the first such incident on the trip over. Deciding to intervene before it went any further, Archer spoke. 

"I don't think it is, Lieutenant." Archer hoped his usage of rank would remind both Trip and Malcolm that now wasn't the time to be starting an argument. "The back end looks different." Both Trip and Malcolm turned back at the sound of his voice. 

"What made you even think that a human ship would be in this maze?" Archer couldn't help asking. 

"Oh, just something Travis said." Malcolm returned to studying the ship in question intently. After a few moments turned back and shrugged, "I guess your right. It's not quite the same." 

"Need I remind you that you are supposed to be looking for any signs we've been detected," T'Pol voiced reproachfully. 

"We haven't forgotten," Archer assured her, giving a stern glance to the other two men to make sure they got the message to keep their minds on the job. Malcolm nodded his understanding, but Trip had already turned his attention back towards the window, so the younger man missed his look. The Captain internally sighed. He'd hoped to get in a quick visit to Sickbay before they left, just to make sure everything really was all right with his friend, but it hadn't been possible. He'd spent most of the time before the mission closeted in his ready room with Travis, not only recording the message that the helmsman was supposed to relay back to Starfleet but also coming up with a backup plan in case anything went wrong. He hoped they wouldn't need it; it was hard to come up with a decent plan when you had so little to go on. 

"Five hundred meters to the docking hatch." T'Pol's words brought Archer out of his ruminations and he glanced up at the front window. The T'Roth was now dominating the view and the docking hatch stood out amidst the mostly flat surface. 

"How much time?" He asked quickly. 

"A little over a minute," came T'Pol's stoic reply. 

Archer blew out a long breath. "We're going to be cutting it awfully fine." _And that,_ he thought, _was the understatement of the century._ Still, he had a job to do. Archer had always been a natural pilot and today he couldn't have been happier about the fact since he'd need all of his skills. Clearing his mind of everything but the task at hand, not the easiest thing to do at the best of times, he turned his full attention to piloting the small pod to its destination. First step was to rotate the pitch of the shuttlepod so the hatches lined up. His fingers flew over the controls and ship slowly rotated, so it was parallel to the side of the T'Roth. Or as close to parallel as he could could get without the sensors to tell him. The second step was to control the speed of the shuttlepod so they didn't hit the docking port too fast. To cut down on time, he wanted to keep the speed up for as long as possible and then shunt the engines into reverse, the literal equivalent of 'slamming on the brakes', while not overshooting the mark. _Now_, his instincts cried out and he reacted immediately, at the same time barking out instructions to his team. 

"Release the docking clamps." 

Archer was so intent on his tasks, he honestly couldn't tell which of the three people behind him called out in acknowledgement of his order, he killed the power to the engines as the shuttlepod covered the last few meters. 

"Five seconds," T'Pol called out. 

"Brace yourselves," Archer warned. As the docking clamps latched on to their counterparts on the Vulcan ship, the shuttlepod lurched to a halt; a little different from the usual soft bump that came with docking. Archer immediately cut all nonessential power systems, plunging most of the Shuttlepod into darkness as the lights went out. Only T'Pol's console was still working, haloing the Vulcan in a soft glow as she studied the readout's intensely. 

"Well?" Archer asked, not entirely sure if he wanted to hear the answer. 

"Sensors are back online," she replied, never taking her eyes off the screen. After a few more moments, in which Archer began to wonder if anybody had ever really died of suspense, she lifted her gaze to look in his direction, "There's no indication of activity. It doesn't appear we've been detected." 

Two large sighs of relief from the other side of the pod echoed Archer's own, but this was far from over. 

"Get your helmets on. We've got a Vulcan ship to explore," he ordered, reaching down for his own helmet. Just as he was about to put it over his head, T'Pol called out. 

"Captain. I've done a preliminary scan of the T'Roth. Power is down on all parts of the ship and there are no bio-signs." 

Archer nodded in acknowledgement and finished attaching his helmet and hooking up his oxygen supply. It was pretty much what he expected to hear. _ The only question now is, are they dead? Or are they down on that planet?_ He hoped the T'Roth would provide the answers. 

Archer looked at the rest of the away team, all ready to go. Trip and Malcolm fidgeting around in nervous anticipation, the armoury officer fingering his phase pistol, while T'Pol waited patiently in perfect contrast to the other two. If it had been under different circumstances, Archer might have been amused at the sight, but as it was, he was just as anxious about getting started. 

"Let's go." 

******************* 

Malcolm was the first into the Vulcan ship, his phase pistol drawn and ready as he scanned the corridor. For what, Trip wasn't quite sure, after all T'Pol had said there were no bio-signs. Eventually the Armoury officer must have been satisfied because he gave the all clear signal and the others moved into the corridor. A few moments of silence followed as they all checked their scanner readings carefully. T'Pol finally broke the silence. 

"There's nothing on the scanners." To Trip's ears, she sounded almost satisfied with that result, no doubt because it confirmed her earlier readings from the shuttlepod. 

"Well then, let's get to work and find out everything we can," Archer ordered. 

"We're gonna need some power. I'll head on down to Engineerin', see if I can get it working." It was a reasonable suggestion but Trip saw Archer hesitate briefly. The whole trip over in the shuttlepod Archer had been shooting him concerned glances whenever he thought he hadn't been looking. It was as if the Cap'n expected him to keel over at any second. The sad thing was, if Archer had really known what happened in Sickbay he'd most likely be laughing his head off right about now rather than preparing to catch him if he fainted. 

"I don't think it's a good idea to be splitting up, sir," Malcolm opined from his position, still sweeping the corridor with his phase pistol at the ready. Trip bit back a sarcastic comment about sticking together to ward off ghosts. It wouldn't help matters. For if the captain had been annoying with his over-protectiveness, Malcolm was really starting to piss him off. A small part of him knew it was partly his own fault for not getting around to telling Malcolm that he hadn't really intended to ask T'Pol out, but the less rational part of his brain was feeling less inclined to accept responsibility. _Besides, Malcolm as much as admitted he wasn't planning on doing anything about his own attraction to the Vulcan, so why was he getting so bent out of shape about someone else asking her out? _

Still, some small amount of luck must have been with him because not everyone had decided to gang up on him. T'Pol spoke up. 

"I'll accompany the commander to Engineering. It will be quicker to access the sensors from there." 

Apparently after a few moments thought, the Cap'n must've come to the conclusion that T'Pol's superior Vulcan strength would be enough to catch him if he fell because he nodded his head in agreement. 

"All right. You and Commander Tucker get to engineering and Malcolm and I will head for the Bridge. Keep in touch." 

"Understood," T'Pol acknowledged the captain, before swivelling her gaze to Trip. "Follow me," she commanded, heading off down the corridor at a steady pace. 

Careful to keep his back turned away from both T'Pol and the captain, Trip made sure he caught Malcolm's eyes, "I'm right _behind_ you, Subcommander." He knew it was petty, but it felt so good to get in the last little dig at the armoury officer. _Serves him right_ _for the way he's been acting_. 

As he hurried his stride to catch up with the Vulcan, who was fast disappearing down the corridor, Trip for the first time since coming aboard, began to take in his surroundings. Or what little of his surroundings he could see from the light given off by his headlamps. The corridor's walls gleamed slightly in the lamplight, throwing off shadows. Doorways and access ladders were much more seamlessly integrated into the design than on Enterprise and did little to break the monotony. The worst thing though was the silence. T'Pol's and his own footsteps as they walked along the corridors were the only sounds to be heard. It was the type of silence that let imaginations go into overdrive and Trip's was complying. Ears straining to pick up the tiniest of sounds and eyes narrowing as if it would help him penetrate the darkness beyond what the lamps illuminated. 

"Commander?" T'Pol's questioning voice brought him back to his full senses and he realised he'd stopped dead in the middle of the corridor. Trip's gaze followed T'Pol's to his own hand where he was surprised to see it gripping his phase pistol tightly. He hadn't even realised he'd pulled it out. Quickly holstering it again he gave T'Pol a sheepish grin. He hoped T'Pol couldn't see his face too well through the helmet, otherwise she was no doubt observing it going a bright shade of red right about now. 

"No offense T'Pol, but your Vulcan ship's givin' me the creeps." 

"I see." Trip didn't even need to look at T'Pol's face to know she had one of her eyebrows raised at him. 

"Oh that's right," Trip couldn't help but reply sarcastically, "I forgot. Vulcans don't get scared." 

"No, we don't," T'Pol answered, a bit more brusquely than usual. _Was it his lot in life to piss off everybody lately? _Trip was seriously starting to wonder. __

__

"Well this human does. Can we just talk or something. Anything to keep my mind off" he gestured around to the empty corridors, "this." 

"Very well." T'Pol once more took off down the corridor. She didn't say anything straight away, however, and Trip decided he'd have to be the one to start the conversation. Before he could come up with a topic though T'Pol asked a question which caught him totally by surprise, "Why were you in Sickbay earlier?" 

"Oh that. Well it was...um...uh...I mean. It was nothing. You don't want to hear about that." 

Trip stammered, his wish to talk suddenly squashed like a bug. Trip was glad that T'Pol was concentrating on where they were going and not on him, because if he thought his facing was flaming with embarrassment earlier it was nothing on how he felt now. 

"You wished to talk," T'Pol noted. 

"Well, yeah, but..." Trip was at a loss for words, "Did you have to pick that topic?" 

"What topic did you have in mind?" 

"None, I guess. Just..." He let out a sigh. "It's kinda embarrassing," he admitted lamely. 

"Embarrassing?" T'Pol pressed. 

_Laughing stock of the whole ship embarrassing, if it got out_, Trip was sure. T'Pol didn't look like she was about to give up with the questioning though. 

"All right. I'll tell ya. But you gotta promise to keep it a secret." 

"I promise." 

"I was in Engineering and Dr Phlox called down that the imaging chamber was playin' up. I'd finished what I was doin', so I decided to go take a look myself. Anyway I was reaching around to get at the part I thought was causing all the trouble and..." Trip really didn't want to admit this part, but he had no choice, "my arm got stuck." 

_At least she isn't laughing at me_, Trip thought. _ Do Vulcans laugh? Probably not_, he decided. Still, T'Pol didn't seem to be paying attention at all anymore. She was studying her scanner intently. 

"Somethin' wrong?" Trip asked.  


"No." T'Pol answered. She gestured to their position right beside one of the access ladders, designed to help get around if power went down. They were set back in an alcovewith hatches at either end of the ladder leading to the next deck. "We'll need to descend at least three decks here." 

"Oh! Okay." Relief washed through Trip. Perhaps talking wasn't pushing his imagination down as much as he'd hoped. He reached down and yanked open the hatch, taking a quick look into open space, but it was just as dark on the next level as it was on this one. He looked to T'Pol. 

"Ladies first." 

T'Pol grabbed the handrails and began to climb down. "Go on," she instructed. 

"What?" Trip asked, waiting until she was halfway down before climbing onto the ladder himself. 

"With your story. Your arm was stuck," T'Pol reminded him. 

"Right. Well, you shoulda seen me. Hanging half out of the chamber tryin' to pull my arm out. I must've looked like an idiot. Anyway, it was still stuck when your message came through calling everyone to the bridge. And when the Cap'n called. Phlox was just about to spill the beans in front of everyone, that's why I just cut you all off like that. He just didn't get why I wouldn't want anybody to know." 

"I'm not sure I understand the reason myself. It sounds like an unfortunate accident." 

"Yeah, well, we humans have a twisted sense of humour about these things. Trust me, if this gets out, I'd be the butt of jokes for days." T'Pol had now reached the deck and was opening the hatch for the next. 

"And your torn uniform?" She asked as she continued climbing down. 

"We had to disassemble half the mechanisms in that area before my arm would come out. It snagged on a piece of metal as I was pulling it out." 

"I see." 

They descended the rest of the way in silence. Trip wondered what she was thinking. He didn't have to wait long, once he reached the bottom of the ladder, he turned to find T'Pol pinning him with an intense stare. 

"You were called to Sickbay from Engineering?" 

"Yeah." 

"When you left the Bridge your shift was over." 

Trip suddenly didn't like where this conversation was going anymore. "So?" he asked warily. 

"The Captain was very clear in his instructions. He wanted everyone to rest so we would be fully alert when we found this ship." 

"I know what the Cap'n said." 

"So you agree, you shouldn't have been in Engineering." 

"Well I was. What are you gonna do about it? Dob me in? _Again,_" Trip couldn't help but put a whole lot of anger and sarcasm into his words, "That's right. The Cap'n told me you tattled on me last time." 

"I was merely concerned for your welfare." 

"Well don't be," Trip snapped. "In the future you should just keep your nose out of my business." 

"Very well." 

"Good. Which way's Engineerin'?" 

T'Pol pointed to her right, "It's at the end of this corridor." 

"Great." Trip answered before storming off in the direction indicated, not giving the Vulcan a chance to say anything further. 

******************* 

Lieutenant Malcolm Reed paused at the junction between two corridors. He scanned the cross-corridor carefully before nodding his head in confirmation of what he'd read. 

"The ladder at the end of this corridor should lead to the bridge." 

Behind him, Archer gave a small exasperated sigh. 

"That's what you said about the last ladder." 

"I'm certain this time." 

"You said that too." 

Malcolm cleared his throat and stood to attention. "Yes, Sir." 

Archer gestured for Malcolm to proceed. "Let's go." It's not like they had any better options. Calling T'Pol to ask directions would be extremely embarrassing and not something Archer would particularly relish doing. Still he felt the need to cheer the Armoury officer up. 

"Don't worry Malcolm, I once spent a few weeks on a Vulcan ship. Even after three weeks I couldn't find my way around without a guide." He chuckled to himself at the memory. "They claim they based the layout on a purely logical design, but it's the damnedest bit of logic I've ever seen." 

"I don't know, sir. An overly circuitous route to the bridge could have it's advantages. Especially in defending an attack on the ship." 

Archer looked around at the empty corridors. He hoped it was just his imagination making them seem more gloomy and oppressing than they really were. "Doesn't seem to have worked out especially well for them in this case," Archer couldn't help but note. 

Malcolm had nothing to say to that so both men lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. They reached the end of the corridor and began to ascend the ladder. As Malcolm reached out to push the hatch open Archer gazed up expectantly. 

"Well?" he asked. 

The smirk on the Lieutenants face was large enough to see through the faceplate as he looked down, so Archer knew the answer immediately, even before he spoke, "It's the bridge." 

Archer suppressed the urge to say, _Finally_. It wasn't Malcolm's fault and he didn't want to give the impression he thought it was. 

Archer climbed the rest of the way up the ladder, taking Malcolm's arm to pull himself out the rest of the way. Once on the deck, he surveyed the bridge. In the darkness, it didn't look so different from Enterprise's bridge, just larger. Archer gave a quick thought to his crew, hoping they'd managed to get the message back to Starfleet. 

"Archer to Tucker." 

"Tucker here. Go Ahead." 

"We're on the bridge. How's that power coming?" 

"I'm just lookin' over the power grid now. Doesn't look to be damaged. Give me a few minutes to power it up." 

"Understood." Archer wasn't sure but he thought Trip sounded a little angry. _Don't tell me he managed to pick a fight with T'Pol._ "Everything all right down there?" he asked. 

"Everythin's fine," came the succinct reply. "Anythin' else you wanna know? 'Cause the sooner I can get back to this, the sooner you'll have power." That was it, Archer decided. Something must've occurred to put his engineer in a bad mood. Still, now wasn't the time to be calling him out on it. Whatever it was would just have to wait. 

"No. That'll be fine. Archer out." He closed off communication and looked across the room only to find Lieutenant Reed staring at him, "Something wrong Lieutenant?" 

"No, sir," the Armoury officer replied, turning away to focus his attention elsewhere while mumbling something under his breath. Unfortunately for Malcolm, the comm. system in his helmet amplified the statement and sent it much clearer into Archer's ears. "I just hope he's concentrating on the job." 

_Did Malcolm know what was bothering Trip?_ Archer knew Malcolm and Trip had become close friends while on Enterprise, but Trip had said he wanted to wait to talk about whatever was bugging him. _Besides, the way they'd been acting on the journey over didn't seem to indicate they had._ _But then what was Malcolm talking about?_ Archer was about to follow up on the lieutenant's statement when the bridge stations suddenly lit up. The return of power refocused Archer's attention on the mission. _ It'll have to wait_, he reaffirmed to himself. With T'Pol studying the sensor data of the T'Roth, both past and present to see what she could learn of the events that brought the ship here, that left Archer free to check another source. Being a Captain, one of the most important assignments he had was to record the events occurring around him in his logs. Archer himself also used them to talk out any difficult decisions he had to make or discuss actions he was about to take. He could only hope the Captain of the T'Roth felt likewise. 

"I'll be in the Captain's Ready Room," he informed Malcolm as he crossed the room and pressed the door release. The room itself was about the same size as his own on Enterprise although much more sparsely decorated. It seemed to consist of only a table, with a small computer screen and a chair. Taking a seat, he pulled out his scanner and a small connecting cable. Hooking the two up together would give him the ability to use the built-in Universal Translator in the scanner to translate the computer controls and enable him to listen to the logs in English. 

Archer brought up the log list with relative ease. He'd been worried it may have been encrypted, but that wasn't the case. Now to figure out how far back to go. Unfortunately the Vulcans didn't use the Earth calendar but had developed a system of star dates to measure time. It wasn't a system Archer was familiar with, though from what he could tell the logs themselves seemed fairly widely spaced apart. Archer eventually decided on four logs back - there seemed to be an even wider gap than usual between that log and the log preceding it. Perhaps indicating a new set of circumstances had arisen. It was all he had to go on at this stage. Punching it up, he studied the Captain of the T'Roth for a few moments, a grey-haired man with deep lines around his eyes, though he was wearing the same non-expression that most Vulcans adopted, before hitting play, 

_Captain's Log - Stardate 27622.1 _

__

_Our initial test was succesful. The results have been uploaded into the _

_main computer. Our next test is scheduled for 1300 hours tomorrow._

__

_End Log._

__

_Well that was illuminating_, Archer thought. The Vulcan Captain clearly wasn't big on elaborating his points. Archer wondered for a moment what the other Captain would think of Archer's own logs, filled with his thoughts and feelings on whatever was transpiring, not just the simple facts. Archer moved onto the next log. 

_Captain's Log - Stardate 27624.5_

__

_Long range sensors have detected a ship of unknown configuration heading_

_in our direction. We are attempting to contact this ship and warn them to _

_change course to a safer trajectory. However, until they respond I have no _

_choice but to postpone the second test. _

__

_End Log._

__

Archer was pretty sure the ship the Vulcan Captain was referring to was the same one that seemed to be the cause of all their current problems. Finally, they were getting somewhere. He punched up the next log quickly. 

_Captain's Log - Stardate 27624.9_

__

_Our attempts to contact the unknown vessel have been unsuccessful to this date. _

_If they continue to ignore our warnings we will have no choice but to wait for _

_them leave the area before continuing our experiment._

__

_End Log_

__

_Nothing in that log, _Archer thought moving along to the next. 

__

__

_Captain's Log - Stardate 27625.2_

__

_Attempts to contact the unknown vessel are still unsuccessful. At their current _

_speed, they will reach us within 2 days. Given no further disruptions the vessel _

_should be out of range again within six days, leaving us 11 days to complete _

_our testing. I've asked Science Officer Sopak to devise a new schedule from _

_which to work within the new timeframe._

__

_End Log_

__

Archer drummed his fingers on the console. That was the last Log and it told him _nothing_. It was a complete dead end. Whatever happened must have happened quickly once the alien vessel was in close range. He hoped T'Pol was having better luck than he was. As if in direct response to his thoughts his communicator beeped. 

"T'Pol to Archer." 

Archer pulled it out and responded quickly. "Archer here. Go Ahead." 

"I believe I've found some clues as to what happened to the crew." 

Archer didn't even bother to wait for any more of T'Pol's statement. He immediately jumped up from his chair and headed for the door, gathering Malcolm in with a gaze as he crossed the bridge towards the exit hatch. 

"We're on our way. Archer out." 

******************* 

Trip had found it surprisingly easy to turn the power on and get the environmental controls working. Ever since he'd been systematically going through all the other ship's systems checking for faults. So far their hadn't been any. It was as if the crew just disappeared from their stations. He glanced over in T'Pol's direction. Considering her discovery, that maybe wasn't so far from the truth. Now there wasn't much to do but wait for the Captain and Malcolm to come down from the bridge. A quick check on the environmental systems showed the atmosphere and temperature was back within acceptable range. Trip immediately reached up to take his helmet off, his breastplate and gloves soon following. 

"That's better," he sighed in relief, tilting his head back and forth to stretch his neck muscles. The suits were heavy as well as uncomfortable. "T'Pol!" He called out to gain her attention. When she turned from her work to look at him, he gestured towards his now helmet free head, "Environmental controls are back online. You can get out of that suit." 

"Thank you," T'Pol replied and turned back to her work, making no effort to remove her suit at all. Trip's earlier anger had dissipated fairly quickly once he'd had something else to focus on, but obviously his words had upset T'Pol. _Time to make amends_. He sauntered over to her workstation, standing on the opposite side so he wasn't encroaching her personal space. 

"Is something wrong, Commander?" 

"Nope, that's the problem." At T'Pol's raised eyebrow, he explained further, "I've looked over every system on this ship and I can't find a damn thing wrong. It's like they just flew the ship here willingly and turned the lights off before they left." 

"Interesting," she replied. Trip could practically see her filing the information away for later use. 

"It might be a sign that whoever did this isn't hostile. Maybe the Vulcan's just went down for coffee." He offered the suggestion hopefully, not believing it for a minute himself. 

"That would seem unlikely." 

"Yeah," he agreed. _Time to get to the point Trip_, he told himself. Taking a deep breath he plunged in, "Look, T'Pol, about earlier. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have got mad at ya." 

"No apology is necessary, Commander. You were correct. I shouldn't have pried into your personal life." 

"No, it was my fault. Y...You just hit a sore spot." 

"I may not be your first choice, but if you wish to talk about it..." 

"Thanks T'Pol, that's nice of ya, but I can't." Trip let out a big sigh of exsaperation. "You know, it's not even that big of a deal. Or it shouldn't be. But I just can't stop thinking about it. I mean it's not like...." 

His sentence was interrupted by the arrival of Captain Archer and Lieutenant Reed into Engineering. Archer made a beeline for their position. 

"What have you found?" he asked, somewhat anxiously. Catching up more slowly, Malcolm was quickly divesting himself of his EV suit extras, after noticing Trip's undressed state. 

T'Pol punched some buttons on the console bringing up an image that Trip couldn't quite make out from his angle opposite the console. She stepped aside so Archer could have a better look. 

"The crew used the transporter on this ship to go down to the base on the planet." 

"The transporter!" Archer repeated in disbelief. "Where on the base? I thought it was covered with an energy barrier." 

T'Pol brought up another series of images, 

"I've used the sensors of the T'Roth to study the co-ordinates of the last transport. It corresponds with a gap in the energy barrier." 

"A hole?" Malcolm queried. 

"More like a room specifically designed for transporting. It seems to have it's own control room off to the left hand side," T'Pol explained. 

"They have a transporter, too?" Archer asked, his face creased into an expression Trip knew well. He was planning something. 

"I believe so," T'Pol answered. 

"Are there any bio-signs in this transporter room?" 

"No. And because the barrier is absent in that spot the sensors can detail some of the surrounding area as well. It is also empty of bio-signs." 

Archer looked briefly at each of them in turn, "Looks like we're transporting down to the planet." 

"One of us will have to stay behind. To man the transporter," said Malcolm. 

"Not necessarily," Archer replied, turning to face T'Pol. "T'Pol do you think you'd be able to decipher the controls of the aliens' transporter to transport down the remaining person." 

"It should be possible," she acknowledged. 

"So who's gonna be the guinea pig?" Trip asked, though he already had a good idea on who it would end up being. 

"T'Pol will have to go down first to operate their transporter. Malcolm, I assume you'll want to go down too, to secure the area." Archer turned to Trip, "Guess that leaves you or me. Care to draw straws?" 

"Captain, I must protest." Malcolm burst out. "You're the Captain. You have a responsibility to remain safe and risking your life by using alien technology is _unacceptable_." 

"But risking the chief engineer's life is just fine," Trip couldn't help but mutter sarcastically under his breath. Luckily no-one was close enough to hear him. Or so he thought. 

"All right. If that's how you feel Lieutenant," Archer agreed. "Trip?" 

"Sure. Why the hell not?" Trip replied. Archer reached across to pat him on the arm in encouragement before taking off his own helmet and motioning T'Pol to do likewise. 

"The transporter room is this way," T'Pol directed indicating a door to the right of engineering. She opened the door and then stepped aside letting the others enter first. As Trip came parallel to her, she spoke in a lowered tone that wouldn't carry further than the two of them. 

"Risking your life is not acceptable to all of us." Then she moved through the door and onto the platform to stand beside the Captain and Lieutenant Reed. Trip walked slowly into the room, not really sure _how_ to take T'Pol's words. _Did she mean..._

"We're ready when you are Trip." Archer's words broke into his thoughts. _Right, _he thought, refocusing his attention on the job at hand. Either Archer or Malcolm had already hooked up a UT into the control panel so it was merely a matter of pressing the right co-ordinates, transferred over from the console outside by T'Pol and pushing the lever up and then down again. He watched as Archer, T'Pol and Malcolm dematerialised in a swirl of colour. 

"Archer to Trip." His communicator beeped. 

"Trip here. You made it?" 

"Safe and sound. T'Pol's figuring out the transporter system now. We'll let you know as soon as she's ready. Better stand on the transporter platform to be sure we get you." 

"Understood. Trip out." 

Trip hopped up on the platform and looked around nervously. Being up on the platform gave him a good view of the entire room. Unfortunately for him, the room was completely boring, containing just the platform and the controls. Thankfully he didn't have to wait too long before his communicator sounded again. 

"Trip here," he answered immediately. 

"We're ready to transport you now, Trip. Good Luck." 

Trip gulped and unconsciously straightened his posture. Moments ticked by excrutiatingly slowly as he waited for something to happen. Then a slight tingling sensation began in his mid-section and rapidly expanding out. As it grew it also increased in intensity and began to ache. The room spun and his vision blurred until he was sure he was about to pass out. But he didn't and the whole time the pain kept getting worse until it felt like every molecule in his body was ripping itself apart from the others and trying to fly off on it's own..... 

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End file.
